Dark Matter - Engagement Through Threshold States

Abstract

This MFA focuses on my practice as a lighting designer and in particular the development and refinement of my methodology, which involves creating states or scenarios that sit at the edge of perception and understanding. This was explored through three workshops and Dark Matter, a final showing where audiences were engaged in an open and ‘meaning-making’ process experiencing threshold states. ‘Threshold state’ refers to a point of perception that compels the viewer to engage with an image or sound to create meaning before it vanishes. It was my intention to create threshold states across the disciplines of lighting, sound design and site specific spatial design. I also used photography to facilitate a greater understanding of how meaning, perception and recognition occur in these threshold moments. I used my own experience as a deaf person to define how deafness has created a particular viewpoint from which to understand my own design methodology. I define my deafness as a threshold state with which I live. It informs how I create installations which operate on the edge of meaning and recognition. This exegesis is a companion document to the practical investigations and findings from three workshops and a final staged event.